Van @ Travel Turkey

Planning a Turkish holiday: southeastern Anatolia
An oblique rectangle with its corners turning on Malatya, Gaziantep, Van and Hakkari, it's a huge area where every day is bound to throw up surprises. Things won't always go as smoothly as you planned, and communication can sometimes be tricky in a ... April 3, 2011
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Archaeological excavations and surveys carried out in the Van province and environs prove that the history of the city itself goes back as far as 5000 B.C. The Tilkitepe Mound, which is on the shore of Lake Van itself and only a few kilometres to the south of Van Castle is the only source of information about the oldest culture of Van.

In the 9th century BC, the Van area was the center of the Urartian kingdom . In Ancient - part of Greater Armenia. In 908-1021 was central part of Armenian Kingom of Vaspurakan, then joined Byzantine Empire. With the Seljuk victory at the Battle of Malazgirt in 1071, just north of Lake Van, it became a part of Seljuk Empire and later the Ottoman Empire.

In culinary terms, as some cities in Turkey became renowned for their like kebap culture or else, Van has distinguished itself with its breakfast culture.

The Turkish Van and Van Kedisi (Van Cat) are breeds of cat native to this town and named after it. The Turkish Van cat is noted for having different colored eyes and enjoying swimming and rain. The Van cat is quite large and milky white and when it is curled up you take it for a heap of cotton, so white is it. Of course, the Van cat's most distinctive feature is its eyes, for one eye is blue and the other, amber.

Most of the houses are low and single-storeyed and at the edges the height of their roofs is no more than one metre.This mud- bbrick world has its own style of architecture, too. These houses are beautiful in so many ways.

People who have never been to Van and most of those who know little about it think that it is by the lake. That's what I used to think, but in fact Van is seven and a half kilometres from the Lake. Just as Evliya Çelebi said, Van Castle stands between the city and the lake like a kneeling camel. Van Castle is the castle of Queen Semiramis, said to have been its founder. There is a legend about it.

Old Van is at the foot of the castle walls. It was inhabited until the First World War. When the people of Van returned from their forced migration they found the city in ruins and, realising that they would never be able to live there again, built a new city on higher ground.

Part of Van was destroyed by the last earthquake. There is a district that, like Old Van, is in ruins and is known as "the ruined neighbourhood".

Lake Van is well worth seeing and well worth describing - but how? It is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Mountains that are snow- capped, huge, bare, verdant, exquisite, clothed in a soft carpet. Lake Van is not a lake but a sea, for it is so large that no other comparison can be made. The people of Van also refer to it as a sea - water in a silver bowl, the sides of which are richly ornamented.

No other lake, sea or stretch of water in the world can be quite the same blue as Lake Van, an intense, bewitching blue that cannot be seen even in the sky, or, indeed, anywhere else. The only blue that resembles it is the blue of the flowers on Diyarbak%u0131r Plain, or the blue in shards of broken glass. The colour of the lake changes, too, with every hour of the day; you will see patches of purple, deep blue and grey, green as well.

How to get here and travel around

Nearest airport: Van. Regular flights from Ankara, İstanbul and Antalya. Intercity buses from most major towns to either Tatvan or Van, or by train (3 weekly) from İstanbul. Both Hertz and Avis have agents in Van.

Where to stay

- Tatvan: Kardelen Hotel, Tel: (434) 827 9500.
- Ahlat: Selçuklu Hotel, Tel: (434) 412 5697. Adilcevaz: Otel Park, Tel: (434) 311 4150.
- Van: Tamara, Tel: (432) 214 3296; Merit Hotel, 12km from Van, Tel: (432) 312 3060; www.merithotels.com
- Admission and opening hours: Ahlat Museum. Tues-Sun 8 a.m.-noon & 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

Van Article on Wikipedia
Van on http://www.kultur.gov.tr

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